A play for U.S. tourists

David Goldstein, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, shown on the Halifax waterfront on Thursday, says a stronger marketing campaign in the U.S. is needed to revive tourism. (TED PRITCHARD / Staff)

American tourists are the target of a $210-million, three-year marketing campaign proposal by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada that could also benefit Nova Scotia.

“We’re in the process of engaging the industry and gathering support for a request we’ve made with the federal government for a new marketing campaign in the U.S. to help re-stimulate U.S. visitation to Canada,” association president and chief executive officer David Goldstein said in an interview in Halifax Thursday.

The association is asking the federal government for $105 million to market Canada as a tourism destination in the U.S. That amount would be matched by provincial, local and private sector investment.

Goldstein said fewer Americans are visiting Canada, in part, because the Canadian Tourism Commission has reallocated marketing funds to target emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil.

Goldstein said the country as a whole, and Atlantic Canada in particular, has seen a drop in U.S. visitors in recent years.

“We have seen across the country, but appreciably here in Atlantic Canada, the biggest drop in international visitation is from the U.S. market.”

According to Nova Scotia Tourism Agency figures, U.S. visits to Nova Scotia dropped to under 200,000 in 2010 from about 300,000 in 2001.

Visits from the U.S. dropped by two per cent in 2013 from the year before.

Goldstein said there were a number of reasons for that decline, including a lack of aggressive tourism marketing, border security perceptions and a strong Canadian dollar.

“A lot of those have sort of melted away,” he said.

“The U.S. economy has improved, U.S. visitation globally is up, the number of U.S. passport holders has doubled since 2002.”

He said the proposed Connecting America campaign would remind Americans that Canada is still here. “Advertising works,” he said.

Goldstein said the campaign would include regional components that would highlight tourism attractions in different provinces, including Nova Scotia.

“What we’re hoping to see is a national campaign with a series of sub-regional campaigns that would be based on partnerships within the region,” he said.

Darlene Grant Fiander, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia, endorsed the proposed U.S. marketing campaign.

“It’s an important initiative,” she said in an interview Thursday.

Grant Fiander, who met with Goldstein Thursday, said the province is spending more on marketing Nova Scotia as a tourism destination in the United States.

She said new developments, including the resumption of the ferry service between Yarmouth and Portland, Maine, and the new Halifax convention centre, put Nova Scotia in a tremendous position to leverage exposure from a national marketing campaign in the U.S.

Tourism is a $2-billion annual business in Nova Scotia and employs 24,000 people, according to the Nova Scotia Tourism Agency, which markets the province as a tourism destination.